Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

If you like Kung Pao dishes, you’ll have a hard time not falling in love with these Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts. It’s like the most delicious vegetarian Chinese take-out. Only it’s homemade and so easy to make.

This recipe is adapted from Chef Kevin Gillespie’s recipe who was a former Top Chef contestant and owner of Gunshow, a new (fairly) restaurant in Atlanta.

The brussels sprouts are roasted in a hot oven until nicely browned with just some olive oil, salt and pepper.

While they roast, you make a super flavorful Kung Pao sauce to coat them with when you remove them from the oven. The sauce is made from fresh ginger, garlic, red chile paste, soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, and dried chiles de arbol. It has all that wonderful sweetness, saltiness, and spiciness that I love.

The sauce really packs a lot of flavor and you’ll want to taste it before you coat the Brussels sprouts with it so you can customize it to suit your tastes if necessary. You may want a little more heat or sweetness.

A nice sprinkling of finely chopped peanuts finishes them off. I like to really chop them up so they easily stick to the Brussels sprouts.

These Brussels sprouts deserve to be the star of your meal so serve them with some white rice as a main dish. You’ll want to eat a whole plate of them. Promise.

Add red chile paste, chiles, soy sauce, 3 tablespoons sugar, rice vinegar, and 1/2 cup water to pan. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with the 1 1/2 tablespoons water. Add to pan. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook until sauce thickens. Give sauce a taste and if it tastes salty and not very sweet, add the extra teaspoon of sugar.